Electronic Arts announced today that it plans on shutting down around 17 online servers for various games - and some of these games are still pretty popular.

As of August 11, EA plans to shut down servers for Army of Two for PS3 and Xbox 360, the Army of Two Demo for Xbox 360, Battlefield 2142 Demo for PC, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for Xbox 360, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat Demo for Xbox 360, Medal of Honor Airborne for PlayStation Portable, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for PlayStation Portable and Wii, NASCAR 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (North America), NCAA Basketball 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, NCAA Football 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Need for Speed Most Wanted for PC and Xbox 360, Need for Speed Undercover for PlayStation Portable, SKATE for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 (PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii) and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

On October 1, servers for Madden NFL 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and NHL 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will be shut down. EA claims that these servers only represent 1 percent of peak game playing time and that it needs to shut them down to save on maintenance costs.

Comments

I don't understand. You don't need a dedicated server to run any multiplayer game. You need an SQL server for data persistence (that can be the stats/data server for all your games) and another server to actually run a game. When players connect, route them to a server that is not busy and fire up an instance of the game in question to host on it.

Considering that servers don't have to load any of the graphics it should load really fast and be ready to service the clients.

EA, this is not how you do business. Shutting down servers for last year's games which are still being played by many more people than you claim are, is such a transparent tactic to force people to buy the next iteration of your games that are only marginally different than the last iteration. For shame! I'm glad I don't buy EA games anymore.

Those games are hardly last year. Most of those have sequels that have already been released and sports games are always a year off. 10 sports games means they came out in '09. 2012 sports games are coming out now, in 2011.

Shout box

Wymorence: For me it just boils down to the fact that, even at a giant company, when a game comes out annually it just gives it a vibe of being rushed out the door. And god knows Unity sucked some major lemur with all its bugs...03/31/2015 - 4:22pm

PHX Corp: I launched my spotify account today, and I kinda went a little overboard with adding music03/31/2015 - 3:59pm

Sora-Chan: Con't. Games like AC are a pain to someone like me who likes to play games in order. So when a game gets too many releases too quickly, it puts me off. Only exceptions are games that have no interconnected underlying stories like the FF games.03/31/2015 - 2:53pm

Sora-Chan: Wikipedia has rarely let me down on matters like this. But yeah... AC needs a break.. like two.. or three... or eight years.03/31/2015 - 2:51pm

Conster: There's 9 already?! I think I played 1, 2, and the ones inbetween 2 and 3.03/31/2015 - 2:23pm

Sora-Chan: Con't There are now Nine... of just the main entries into the series. There are 13 more in the "other games" department.03/31/2015 - 2:15pm

Sora-Chan: I tried to get into AC. Was having a decent time with the first one, at which point they had already released three titles. Then a fourth came out... then a fifth... the wall kept growing before I could finish the first.03/31/2015 - 2:14pm

Daniel Lewis: I think ubisoft should give AC a break before it's milked to death,and i'm a big fan of the games03/31/2015 - 1:15pm

Daniel Lewis: The only thing said i disagree with is the final quote on Men's experiences are seen to be universal but women are gendered,though doesn't anita say that games with male protagonists are male power fantasies,so in turn both are gendered03/31/2015 - 1:08pm

Daniel Lewis: i found the video to be much better than any of the TvW series and it's about time the positive women are put in the spotlight03/31/2015 - 1:06pm

Daniel Lewis: So feministfrequency released a positive female character video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmj2yJNUmQ03/31/2015 - 1:05pm

Daniel Lewis: I think the guy who made the direct leak said it was an april fools joke when a real one was announced03/31/2015 - 12:43pm

MaskedPixelante: No way Nintendo would let information like that get out. Remember, they shut down a memoir about the localization of Earthbound by enforcing a 20 year old NDA on the author.03/31/2015 - 12:42pm

james_fudge: Conster: the larger issue is that Ind. does not protect LGBTQ+ people under state law03/31/2015 - 12:11pm

PHX Corp: @MP I think it is confirmed(not an April Fools joke) http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-confirmed-for-wednesday-april-1st/03/31/2015 - 12:00pm

Conster: Apparently Pence intends to amend SB101 so denying service isn't allowed - without explicitly protecting LGBT+ and while still allowing the many other things you can get away with now if it's motivated by your religious beliefs.03/31/2015 - 11:53am

MaskedPixelante: http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/30/rumour-nintendo-direct-on-april-1st/ A supposed full leak of tomorrow's Nintendo Direct, so you can all laugh and laugh about how wrong it is.03/31/2015 - 11:35am